Couldn’t Care Less, a new play examining the ups and downs of caring for someone with dementia, is opening this Friday and Saturday at the North Edinburgh Arts Centre.
The play explores the lives of Elspeth, a former dancer who develops Alzheimer’s, and her daughter Lilly who finds her life disappearing as she gives it all up to care for her mother. It’s a dark, surreal, funny and moving play and speaks not only to those with experiences of caring and being cared for, but also the general public as our society faces up to the looming challenge of caring for older people.
A new chapter: CIRCLE’s HAVEN Project celebrates Storytelling Week
Children and parents from Circle’s Haven project created a book with the help of children’s author Mike Nicholson last week.
The week-long event (29 July – 2 August) was all part of Haven’s Storytelling Week activities and culminated with a celebration at North Edinburgh Arts when storyteller Claire McNicol read aloud the new book.
Children and parents, guided by Mike, created a narrative for their story by visiting different Edinburgh locations and developed a plot from what they found on their adventures. The result of a visit to Silverknowes was a story about mermaids and pirates, so there were some fantastic ideas!
They then worked with Mike and Haven staff to drawing pictures to feature as illustrations in the new book.
Everyone involved in the project joined to celebrate at North Edinburgh Arts on Friday, where professional storyteller Claire McNicol read aloud the completed book, with help from some volunteers.
So did the pirates and mermaids feature in the finished book? Well, that’s another story!
To see a video of the completed book, visit the CIRCLE Scotland website at:
Attached are details of a Give and Take day organised by North Edinburgh Timebank and Tenants and Residents in Muirhouse. We are having a ‘swish’ (where you swap clothes) and a toy and book swap stall. There will be arts activities in the garden run by NEA and a bike workshop run by My Adventure. We hope to get a knitting group up and running too…
As well as this, we are organising a furniture donation. If people have large items they want to donate, they can get in touch and we can pick them up on the Saturday morning. We are also looking for volunteers to help with the moving and lifting, so if you know any fit, healthy people with a couple of hours to spare …
North Edinburgh Community Circle has been running for just over three years. We meet once a month at North Edinburgh Arts Centre and welcome people from the local area and all over Edinburgh to share food, friendship, ideas and resources.
In July’s meeting we had a planning session to talk about how to make the most of our connections and include new people in the circle. We also talked a lot about what people get from coming to the circle. We were amazed by what we found out!
These are some of the things people said:
‘It lifts me up coming here’
‘I feel included, part of things and I come out of my ‘pod’’
‘Everyone comes as themselves without their labels’
‘Everyone is on an equal level’
‘Even after a bad day you need to think of something positive (and the circle helps you to do that)’
‘It’s nice to learn people have different ways of doing things’.
People also appreciated how welcoming the circle is and how nice it is to have somewhere to come where people are focusing on positive things. Some also said it had helped to increase their confidence in general.
In the circle meetings we eat together (food is always provided), get to know each other, and share our resources whether they are our ideas, things we don’t need anymore, or our skills. We want to create a community based on respect, diversity and recognises that we all have something to give.
We’d love to welcome more people into the circle, so if you’re interested, come along! The next meeting will be on Tuesday 13th August, North Edinburgh Arts Centre, 5.30 – 8pm. We always meet on the second Tuesday of the month so if you can’t make that, come along on 10th September.
If you have any questions or want more details contact Gillian at Edinburgh Development Group: circle@edg-sco.org or 0131 476 0522
The Timebank Temptations is the local singing group formed by members of North Edinburgh Timebank.
Fresh from their appearance opening the Volunteer Awards ceremony at the City Chambers last week, they are doing a free show for all their supporters, friends and families tomorrow evening. All welcome!
Friday 14 June at 7pm in North Edinburgh Arts
catch them before they go global!
No, not those Temptations – the Timebank Temptations!
The Radical Independence on Tour roadshow will be stopping off at North Edinburgh Arts Centre tonight at 7pm in the first of a series of ‘community assemblies’.
Speakers include Jean Urquahart MSP, John Finnie MSP, Green councillor Maggie Chapman and community activist Fraser Young.
North Edinburgh Theatre Project is preparing for a summer spectacular – and you can be part of it, as Stephanie Knight explains …
This message is to everyone to remind you that as from tomorrow (Saturday 18 May) we shall be having workshops from 12 noon – 2pm as well as the Friday evening workshops from 6 – 8pm. This is because we are working towards our performance on Saturday 29th June.
We are also working on a Saturday as some of you have said that you can come along then, but Friday evenings are not always so convenient. Everyone is very welcome to both sessions – Fridays and Saturdays.
We are working towards a very comical performance and there is fun for everyone to join in. So if you haven’t been at the workshops for a while, please don’t worry, you know you are always very welcome when you can make it. We have a crèche and it would be good to know if you are bringing your children so that we can plan crèche workers. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with me or Kate at North Edinburgh Arts.
Zoo Arts, a creative project led by artist Alice Betts based at North Edinburgh Arts, will be installing another piece of exciting contemporary public art in Muirhouse Shopping Centre on Wednesday (15 May) at 5pm.
Light will shine through recycled plastic bottles filled with coloured water turning a grey space into a playful symphony of colour. This eyecatching piece of work has been created by local young people who have participated in creative outreach sessions supported by Muirhouse Library and Muirhouse Youth Development Group.
Zoo Arts aims to encourage and support young people to develop their contemporary art skills, install temporary public art and undertake professional art commissions. The project works with local young people (9 – 14 years) who have an interest in visual art and are keen to develop their creativity. This project hopes to inspire future creative collaborations, locally and city-wide.
That referendum – made your mind up yet? If leaflets, TV debates and party political broadcasts leave you unmoved, maybe a drama performance will spark some interest and generate debate? Inverleith CLD worker Callum McLeod is certainly enthusiastic about a forthcoming event:
I’ve attached a poster advertising performances by Inverleith Youth Theatre which will take place in Broughton High School and North Edinburgh Arts theatres of in two weeks time (details in the poster).
The ‘Stuck In The Middle’ storyline concerns a teenage male’s journey and his subsequent thoughts towards becoming “Independent”. However, I’m sure the audience will find various other messages and subplots – and perhaps even a wider social issue for them to explore through the watching the performance!
We’re also planning the event so that there’ll be space at the end for discussion and so folk will have time to discuss the piece further, and share their thoughts with other audience members – and we do imagine that the subject matter will carry over for some time!
Without doubt, I’m slightly biased towards Inverleith Youth Theatre’s performances but they are usually of a good standard and so I can honestly say that I’m sure this will be a fab performance and well worth attending!
The main aim of the performance is to get as many people as possible talking and thinking about the actual issues raised, so we’ve made the event free. We’ll still be taking donations though as this youth group are trying to take it’s members – and the performance – to a youth drama camp over the summer, so any contributions towards this will be welcomed!
Inverleith Youth Theatre’s ‘Stuck In The Middle’ performance dates:
